SCHOOLBOY Grant Bromley has been picked to star in a new radio "soap opera" - and better still, the part has been "recreated" especially for him.

Grant is just 11, although his role in the new Radio Lancashire saga The Seasiders had been intended for a 17-year-old.

Now, after finding Grant fits the bill perfectly in every other respect, scriptwriters are putting pen to paper and adapting the part as a 12 to 14-year-old.

Haslingden High School pupil Grant was recommended for the role after top class performances at the Yellow Brick Road Theatre Co, based at the old Rawtenstall fire station. The series, based around a family-owned hotel in Blackpool, is due to be broadcast at the end of October.

Grant, who lives with his mum and dad and three sisters in Goodshawfold, is following in the family footsteps as a budding star of stage and screen.

Mum Sally-Ann is keen on amateur dramatics and is a member of the Crawshawbooth Players. Both Sally-Ann and Grant will appear in A Christmas Carol at Bacup's Empire Theatre in December.

Grant will play the young Scrooge and his mum will be Mrs Feziwig. She only went along to take Grant for an audition but ended up reading for a part herself.

Grant, also a keen poet and member of the 45th Rossendale Scouts, is "made up" about his new radio role according to Sally-Ann.

He is now having the last laugh on his sisters, Laura, 16, Hayley, 13, and Harriet, nine, who have teased him.

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